This contract establishes a mechanism to provide all of the support services required to conduct a wide variety of field studies. While the scientific direction and overall supervision for all projects is the responsibility of the professional staff of the Branch, support services provided by the contract include the development of liaison with organizations and individuals at a local or international level whose cooperation is needed for the conduct of a study; the design and development of forms required to conduct field investigations (interview forms, record-abstracting forms, interviewer manuals, etc.); the hiring, training, and supervision of technical personnel (interviewers, record abstractors, and persons to collect biological specimens); the actual collection of the required data; and the data reduction activities involved in field investigations (e.g., coding, keying, editing, and a variety of data processing activities). The contractor also must provide field supervision and develop quality control mechanisms to ensure the quality of the activities as well as the maintenance of control of all aspects of every study by the appropriate Branch investigators.